It was late in the game, and the pressure was on.

Because Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011 budget cuts resulted in a sharp decline in state appropriations for the University of Wisconsin System, the stakes were high as lawmakers began this year’s budgeting process. Believe it or not, the System appeared to be ahead in the game, and all signs pointed to a significant increase in state funding for UW schools – all system administrators needed to do was play heads up defense, and, you know, not fuck anything up.

You might say it was the bottom of the ninth inning, and the UW System was taking the field with a precarious two run lead.

That is, of course, until UW System President Kevin Reilly dropped the ball. Lawmakers uncovered a revenue appropriations balance of more than $600 million about which System administrators had been less than forthcoming. All of the sudden, state politicians were calling for a revision of the budget to cut funding for UW schools.

Then there’s a ground ball hit to Reilly and … well, shit.
For system administrators, this should have been a routine play – after all, they simply needed to be up front with finances. It was their lack of transparency that lawmakers capitalized on for political gain.

Reilly’s flub didn’t end there – his response to irate lawmakers was, on the whole, clumsy. Republican legislators were reaming out the UW System, and rather than focusing on the financial necessity of the revenue balance and defending the System’s administrative decision making, he spent too much time apologizing. If it wasn’t clear that Republican lawmakers came out on top before Reilly made an appearance at the Capitol, it certainly was after his rather acquiescent question and answer session.

Now, as Walker talks about diverting funding from UW to K-12 schools and tax cuts, it is obvious that Reilly’s defensive error blew a late-inning lead. It also earned him this year’s Badger Herald Editorial Board Bill Buckner Award for Faulty Infielding.